{"product_id":"9781442650589","title":"The Politics of Language: Byrhtferth, Aelfric, and the Multilingual Identity of the Benedictine Reform","description":"\u003cp\u003eOld English literature thrived in late tenth-century England. Its success was the result of a concerted effort by the leaders of the Benedictine Reform movement to encourage both widespread literacy and a simple literary style. The manuscripts written in this era are the source for the majority of the Old English literature that survives today, including literary classics such as \u003cb\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/b\u003e. Yet the same monks who copied and compiled these important Old English texts themselves wrote in a rarified Latin, full of esoteric vocabulary and convoluted syntax and almost incomprehensible even to the well-educated.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eComparing works by the two most prolific authors of the era, Byrhtferth of Ramsey and Ælfric of Eynsham, Rebecca Stephenson explains the politics that encouraged the simultaneous development of a simple English style and an esoteric Latin style. By examining developments in Old English and Anglo-Latin side by side, \u003cb\u003eThe Politics of Language\u003c\/b\u003e opens up a valuable new perspective on the Benedictine Reform and literacy in the late Anglo-Saxon period.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Toronto Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47043070525680,"sku":"9781442650589","price":57.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781442650589_p0.jpg?v=1763810922","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781442650589","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}